Christmas Day 2015 ratings: Downton Abbey beats Strictly Come Dancing

Downton Abbey is the highest rating United Kingdom drama of the past decade across any channel, with an average of 11 million viewers over the course of the five series, including Christmas specials.

He revealed, “We easily could have gone for a 7th season, but if I’d have said “We haven’t got Maggie” it would have been a shadow of itself”.

Speaking about her time on the show, she said: “We’ve made friends for life, you know Laura [Carmichael] and I are not anxious about not seeing each other because we live very close by one another, we see each other all the time”.

More people are expected to turn to catch-up and recording services to watch Christmas Day broadcasts. Not everyone gets the happy endings, but ultimately we are a positive show.

Downton Abbey will end its run on Christmas Day in the United Kingdom, but US fans will see the final season airing on PBS starting on January 3 with the finale set to air in March.

Downton Abbey came to an end on Christmas Day, devastating the nation and the world beyond.

Coronation Street was watched by 5.9m, and the only movie to feature within the Top 10 rated programmes of the day was Brace with 5.5 million viewers.

The ultimate episode of the period drama pulled within the festive viewers on ITV. Some observers predicted that this year’s Christmas Day overnight audience figures would be among the lowest on record in the United Kingdom, with early Saturday commentary suggesting viewing could have hit its lowest point since 2009. We can expect a sumptuous Christmas spectacular from the show’s creator Julian Fellowes and plenty of caustic wit from the Dowager Countess, played by national treasure Maggie Smith.

Storylines are, for the most part, carefully concluded and where they’re not neatly tied up we can at least imagine what future might lie ahead.